Cecil Kimber wrote:
When the Phals start blooming the Mealies start breeding. I'd like to get a
jump on it this year. Has anyone had success with biological controls? I'm
considering releasing some Cryptolaemus montrouzieri into the greenhouse.
These are the commonly named Australian Ladybug. Supposedly both the adults
and larvae are predacious. They are supposedly useful in controlling citrus
and longtail mealies outdoors. Anyone tried them in a greenhouse? Merry
Ho, Ho!
I don't grow many Phals, but I did declare war on the mealies that were
infesting my paphs a couple of years ago. I confess that I had missed
the infestation for far too long. I wondered why I was losing leaves
and some of my plants were struggling, but didn't make the connection
until too late.
Anyway, depending on how many plants you have, this might work. I
treated a little less than 800 this way. I said it was a war, didn't
I? My memory recalls that I had the following military strategy (but
the victors write the history, so maybe I'm a little off). Phase 1)
Repot everything, spraying plants and roots with ENSTAR. Phase 2) After
everything was repotted, spray very liberally with ENSTAR every five
days for three additional weeks. Phase 3) week four, mind you...
Spray with Orthene WP every five days for three more weeks. Total
nuclear annihilation. Haven't seen a mealy bug for a couple years. And
if you are going to go through all this, be sure to quarantine new
arrivals for at least a month, if not longer. And always make sure you
have an exit strategy before you engage the enemy *grin*
So... Enstar inhibits insect development (I'm pretty sure it inhibits
molting), and it is quite specific. Quite effective, too, if the bug
can't molt it can't grow up and make baby bugs... And fairly
expensive. But, if were spraying anything anywhere around other humans
or pets, I would use Enstar and skip the Orthene. You might have
trouble finding it. I suspect that a dedicated regime of Enstar would
have been sufficient, but I had the Orthene WP, so I figured better safe
than sorry. Quite frankly, anything that you find acceptable (alcohol,
soap, malathion, uranium dust - just kidding!!) would be suitable, as
long as you repot everything and are diligent in your follow-through.
Even if you don't see any critters, keep up the assault for the full
duration.
Sounds like overkill, doesn't it? But if you do it right, you don't
have to spray again. A small collection in an enclosed environment
(house, or grow room) is quite hard to infest with critters. Kill them
all, take no prisoners, and make sure you don't put any critters back
into the collection.
If you do go with the predatory insects, let me know how it turns out.
I haven't tried it yet (haven't needed to since my successful
campaign!), although I'm considering it as a weapon against spider mites.
Rob
--
Rob's Rules:
http://www.msu.edu/~halgren
1) There is always room for one more orchid
2) There is always room for two more orchids
2a. See rule 1
3) When one has insufficient credit to purchase
more orchids, obtain more credit